Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Chaos at the Superdome - - or not

Digby has a longish, but excellent post on the rumours and hysteria that probably killed more people than the ficticious baby-raping looters at the superdome.

"I think 99 percent of it is [expletive]," said Sgt. 1st Class Jason Lachney, who played a key role in security and humanitarian work inside the Dome. "Don't get me wrong ?bad things happened. But I didn't see any killing and raping and cutting of throats or anything ... 99 percent of the people in the Dome were very well-behaved."

Inside the Superdome, where National Guardsmen performed rigorous security checks before allowing anyone inside, only one shooting has been verified ?and even that shooting, injuring Louisiana Guardsman Chris Watt of the 527th Engineer Battalion, has been widely misreported, said Maj. David Baldwin, who led the team of soldiers who arrested the alleged assailant.

Watt had indeed been attacked inside one of the Dome's locker rooms, where he entered with another soldier. In the darkness, as they walked through about six inches of water, Watt's attacker hit him with a metal rod, a piece of a cot. But the bullet that penetrated Watt's leg came from his own gun ?he accidentally shot himself during the commotion. The attacker was sent to jail, Baldwin said.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Amen

As usual Bilmon says it better than the rest of us. I see nothing here to disagree with. The west, especially the U.S. is screwed if they stay in Iraq and the average Iraqi is screwed if the U.S. leaves and screwed if they stay.